Openreach has put the wheels in motion to become a separate Brand from the BT Group, dropping the parent company from its logo and marketing collateral as of today (11 July).

The change comes as part of an agreement with Ofcom following the regulator's Digital Communications Review in March 2017, which required Openreach to act more independently from the BT Group.

The company has characterised the decision as a “simple and pragmatic step” rather than “an extravagant rebrand”. Openreach believes that by dropping BT from its branding, it will look to be treating all its communication partners equally.

These partners include Vodafone, Sky and TalkTalk, as well as BT. 

The refreshed brand, which is sticking with the same typeface and name for familiarity purposes, is aiming to update 22,000 Openreach vans, workwear, websites, apps, stationery and signage between now and April 2021.

Clive Selley, Openreach’s chief executive, said: "The re-brand is also an opportunity to restate what Openreach stands for and how we want to work going forward. Openreach is all about our people and our network.

“We’re demonstrating our independence, to customers and industry, in other ways too. For example, we’re changing the way we do business with our customers: we now have a confidential phase to our consultations which allows communications providers to talk about their business strategies privately with Openreach.”